Patrick Doyle
An out-of-county jury will be brought in to hear the case of a local man accused of murdering his live-in girlfriend.
An unsuccessful effort to select a local jury began Monday morning in Bartholomew Circuit Court in the case of Patrick E. Doyle. The 39-year-old defendant is accused of murder in regard to the August 2021 death of 37-year-old Heather Ann Steuver.
Bartholomew County Coroner Clayton Nolting ruled the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head, and determined the manner of death as homicide.
A defense motion was made alleging that pre-trial publicity prevented Doyle from getting a fair trial with a local jury. In response, Judge Kelly Benjamin questioned prospective jurors who indicated they had recently read about the case on a one-on-one basis. Each interview was quietly held at the bench so others in the courtroom could not hear the discussion.
Following the questioning, Benjamin said almost 30% of the potential jurors had read a preview of the case published in Saturday’s edition of The Republic. The preview contained facts that the judge said the jury should not have seen just prior to the trial.
The potential jurors were also asked whether they have seen details and opinions regarding the case in social media and other news outlets.
With those jurors who read the newspaper article dismissed, the court was left with 38 potential jurors. Benjamin said that was an insufficient number for choosing 12 jurors with two alternates that would be agreeable to both the prosecution and defense.
After confirming the court will seek a jury from a currently undetermined county, the judge dismissed the jurors shortly before noon Monday.
